


1964 revised

by LtTanyaBoone



Category: Pan Am
Genre: Canon Rewrite, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-12
Updated: 2012-08-12
Packaged: 2017-11-15 06:56:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/524427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LtTanyaBoone/pseuds/LtTanyaBoone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU/rewrite of 1x14, what if Mr Ortiz had mentioned Kate and Colette in his letter to Pan Am, too?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1964 revised

**Disclaimers:** Pan Am, the rights to the show and its characters do not belong to me. No money was made by this.  
 **Spoilers:** S01E14 1964  
 **Pairing:** Colette/Omar, Colette/Dean

* * *

“Oh, we will make it better.” Kate declared, squeezing Colette’s shoulder and smiling at her sister, buzzing with excitement for 1964 already. 1963 had been wonderful and so full of changes and chances that Kate couldn’t wait to see where the next year would take them all.

The three stewardesses were heading out, planning how they were going to divide the New Year’s Eve preparations among each other when the scheduling manager called them back.

“What is it?” Laura asked the man, who shrugged.

“You can go, I meant Miss Valois and Miss Kate Cameron.” he told them, handing the other two women an envelope. Kate and Colette exchanged a look before putting down their bags and tearing through the envelopes. Laura watched as they read and paled almost at the same time. Colette leaned against the counter and Laura saw her sister draw a shuddering breath as she shook slightly.

“What’s going on?” the youngest of the three women asked.

“I’ve been grounded.” Colette told her as Kate sighed and handed over her letter to her sister.

“What? Why?” Laura wondered, reading over the lines, her eyes widening.

“I guess we’ll find out at the formal hearing.” Kate shook her head, closing her eyes. “Haiti?” she tossed around and Colette nodded.

“But we’ve all sworn up and down that we brought the girl on board, why are they singling out you two?” her sister asked.

“I don’t know.” Colette shook her head, sighing as she picked up her bag again. Laura watched the two women and rolled her eyes slightly.

“Oh, come on! Let’s go have some drinks, I’m buying.” she suggested in an attempt to cheer them up, but Colette just shook her head.

“No, I want to get some rest.” she declined before disappearing. Kate shrugged when her sister looked at her, a little disappointed.

“They’re not going to fire her. She’s Colette, she’s perfect, and she hasn’t done anything wrong before.”

“She brought a store away on board a Pan Am plane, Laura.” Kate reminded her sister as they walked out. “And it’s different for Colette. Her staying in the US is tied to the job at Pan Am. If she loses it, she might get kicked out of the country.” the older Cameron said, furrowing her brows lightly. It was a strange moment to be bringing up Haiti again. They had all thought that they managed to avoid that iceberg, but it seemed like they had been wrong. At least, Colette and Kate had been.

* * *

When she returned home from spending the day with Omar, Colette found Dean sitting on the steps of her building. She knew that talking to him wouldn’t end well; after all, she had avoided him for a reason the last few weeks. His face was a constant reminder of the one time that she had allowed herself to push her fear aside and it had ended up hurting her worse than anything before ever had.

“What’s your prince say to your hearing?” Dean asked her and Colette gave him a look after she sat down next to him.

“We talked about it. At length.” she told him, frowning. “Laura mentioned that you have one, too?”

Dean nodded, rubbing his hands together to ward of the cold a little.

“Yeah. Guessing it’s about Haiti.” he told her and Colette nodded.

“Kate and I think so, too.” she agreed, drawing a slow breath in the cold.

“So he’s willing to court a smuggler?” Dean teased her and she gave him a look.

“Dean…”

“I just, I don’t want you to get swept up in some fantasy.” he shook his head.

“Well, I’m beginning to think that love is a fantasy. One day there, and the next,” she said, watching as his eyes flickered away, “gone.”

“Colette-”

“Good luck with your hearing, Dean.” she said before standing and going inside, her mind reeling.

* * *

“I suppose you’re not going to pay me back with a favor?” Kate asked as she stitched the microfilm into the lining of her coat, her fingers trembling. On top of her worries about her job she had to keep a cool head and help Richard uncover who had shot him and get him help. All she wanted was to curl up in her bed and sleep until the hearing was over and she knew what her future was going to be, not this strange feeling of waiting for a sentence that could turn her entire life upside down. And if she lost her job at Pan Am, then the CIA would have no more use for her…

“What kind of favor?” Richard asked, drawing a ragged breath as he tried to find a comfortable position, wincing in pain.

“One that saves my job at Pan Am?” Kate muttered, finishing her work and putting on the coat.

“I’ll see what I can do.” Richard nodded, much to her surprise. She gave him a last look before leaving her apartment, her heart racing with the thrill of the assignment.

* * *

Colette drew a deep breath and squeezed Kate’s hand as their names were called and they went into the conference room used for the hearing after Dean stepped out, giving them a somber look.

“Miss Valois. Miss Cameron. Please, take a seat.” Paul Gilbert told them and the two women shared a look before sitting down.

“I am sure you can imagine what this is about, but in case it was unclear, we are investigating your crew’s escapade in Haiti.” the man sitting on the right of Gilbert informed them.

“We figured.” Kate nodded, squaring her shoulders slightly as she sat up on the couch.

“I would like to begin with Miss Valois.” Gilbert decided, frowning down at his papers. “It was you who brought the Haitian girl on board, am I correct?” he asked her. Colette opened her mouth, but Kate cut across her.

“No. It was me.” she declared, earning herself a glare from the men in the room as Colette hissed her name.

“Miss Cameron, let me advise you to hold your tongue for the moment. You are in enough trouble as it is.”

“We have all sworn-” Kate started, but this time, Gilbert interrupted her.

“I am well aware of what went down in Miami, Miss Cameron. And this is your last warning, stop talking unless you are spoken to or you will be removed from the room.” the older man snapped at her and Kate swallowed thickly, inclining her head. Gilbert nodded before turning his attention back to Colette.

“Well?”

“Yes.” she confirmed. “It was me who brought the girl on board.” Colette confessed.

“And then you used your personal relationship with the Captain into persuading him to take her back to the States, is that correct?”

Colette shook her head. “I pleaded with Captain Lowrey, yes. But there was no personal relationship between us at that point. Captain Lowrey and I had been flying together on the same crew for a few months, we were friends. Nothing more.” she corrected, but Gilberts face made it clear how much he believed that. “I have never lied to Pan Am.” Colette told him. “I have always been honest, why should I lie about when my relationship with Captain Lowrey began?” she asked him. “We dated for a month after Haiti, but that relationship is over. I have no reason to protect him.”

Kate watched her friend and bit her tongue. She yearned to come to her rescue, but after Gilbert’s threat she wasn’t so sure about saying something.

“You violated Pan Am regulations-”

“The girl was a person in need. She was seventeen. First Officer Vanderway and I met her when we were looking for the doctor to get help to our sick passenger. Her entire family had been killed, yet she was brave enough to show two Americans in a government vehicle to the next village in an attempt to provide us with help. She asked for help in return, and I felt that it was our duty to give it to her in any way we could.” Colette told him and Gilbert shook his head.

“She was a refugee in a village filled with them. Word of this incident gets out; we will be the airline that every person who wishes to defect runs to. We cannot control every move our crews make, so we have to trust that our guidelines are obeyed!”

“I did not ask for an entire village. Nor did I tell others that they would be welcome on board. But this girl was about to be killed for what she had done, she had nothing left in that country. And after she helped us, we were supposed to just tell her to go back and wait for the firing squad?” Colette threw at the man. She felt Kate’s hand squeeze her thigh and looked at her friend who gave her a warning look.

Gilbert drew a deep breath.

“We are aware of your personal history, Miss Valois, however-”

“My personal history has nothing to do with that.” Colette interrupted the man. “I did what I did because there was a human being who needed my help. And I tried my best to give it to her. I told Captain Lowrey that we had landed in Haiti to save the life of a passenger. The man was dead, but the girl had become our passenger the moment she stepped onto the plane, something I didn’t tell her to do. We had the opportunity to try and save her life, and Captain Lowrey made the call to do that.”

Paul Gilbert shook his head. “Speaking of the dead.” he said, holding up a letter. “One of your passengers, a Mister Miguel Ortiz, made a formal complaint. Captain Lowrey threatened him, so did one of your colleagues, Miss Ryan. And according to him, you, Miss Cameron, were the one who suggested to leave the body of a Pan Am passenger behind.” he read out, looking at Kate. “Do you want to correct this statement?”

Kate swallowed thickly and drew a slow breath.

“I can’t do that, Mister Gilbert. Mister Ortiz is correct, it was me who suggested swapping the body for the girl.” the redhead confirmed, plunging on. “The passengers were concerned, since we had had to put their luggage on the tarmac to lose weight in order to be able to lift off a runway that was much too short. They wanted the girl gone, but as Miss Valois has already pointed out, the moment she stepped onto the plane, she became our passenger, too. Henry said that he had wanted to make an impact, to help people, and that night he got the chance. I thought it unfair to take a body back and leave a living person behind to be killed.”

“Mister Belsen’s family wishes to see your position terminated. As well as that of Captain Lowrey.” Gilbert said, staring at Kate. “And there is the small matter of an East German girl finding her way into the US mission on the night of Kennedy’s speech in Berlin. Strangely, she was dressed as a Pan Am Stewardess.”

Kate felt Colette tense up next to her and hoped that the men on the other side of the table had not noticed it.

“Greta, or whatever her name was,” Colette suddenly spoke up, “approached us in the Hotel Lobby. She overhead us talking about trying to sneak into the mission because we wanted a chance to see the American president, but she was already wearing the Pan Am uniform. She introduced herself as a stewardess due to fly out to Athens later, we had no idea that she was not what she claimed to be.” the French woman said, causing the men to frown. Under the table, Kate felt Colette nudge her leg, softly at first before she kicked her in earnest.

“Yes, and I reported my uniform as missing once we were back in the US. I gave it to the hotel dry cleaning and assumed that they had confused us with another crew or another room because I wrote down mine in a hurry.” the redhead quickly added, squeezing her friend’s hand under the table in thanks.

Gilbert drummed his fingers against the tabletop before he rose, Kate and Colette following suit.

“Please wait outside while we discuss our decision.” he told them. The two women nodded and walked out of the room. Dean was standing outside in his uniform, waiting as he stared at the Pan Am logo on the wall.

“Did you know that she was not a stewardess?” Colette hissed at her friend once the door closed behind them.

“Ladies.” Dean turned around, nodding at them, furrowing his brows when he saw Kate trying to breathe. “Something happen in there?”

“I met her, on the street. She ran into me, the, the Stasi was after her. I took her to the hotel, I didn’t know why, but I… she begged me for help, Colette. She wanted to defect, she was terrified, and I…” Kate stammered, reaching up to press her hand against her forehead and holding her stomach. She felt like she was about to be sick with nerves.

“Who are you talking about?” Dean wondered, frowning at the two women.

“We helped an East German girl defect.” Colette informed him, shaking her head.

“What?” Dean exclaimed, staring at Kate. “Tell me, tell me that isn’t true. Kate, I swear to God-”

“They think we were lied to by her.” Colette interrupted him quickly before he could rip her friend a new one. “We twisted the truth of what happened enough to make it believable that none of us had any idea that the girl wasn’t a Pan Am stewardess when we took her to the US mission.”

“Were you out of your mind?” Dean hissed at the redhead and Kate stared at him.

“I could ask you the same damn thing.” she threw at him. “You left a plane in Cuba to run off to find your girlfriend.” she argued.

“Oh, no. Don’t you dare compare some stranger to Bridget-” Dean said, but Kate was already turning to Colette.

“And you brought a Haitian on our plane in an attempt to save her life. I did the same thing, and you are judging me for it?”

Colette shook her head.

“ _Non_. No, I am not judging you for it. But you could have told us. Told me!” she exclaimed, lowering her voice. “After what I said to you on the plane, once we were back in New York…” she trailed off and Kate closed her eyes briefly.

“After the way you reacted to her in Berlin, how was I supposed to be sure that you would not report me?” she asked, trembling. Colette shook her head as she crossed her arms and turned around, walking over to a group of chairs to sit down.

“I just lied, to the Pan Am management.” she muttered when Dean guided Kate over and pushed her down into a chair before the woman could faint. Silence reigned between the three of them before Kate cleared her throat.

“How did your hearing go?” she asked Dean and he just shrugged, tossing his hat onto a free chair.

“I’ll be lucky if I’m back to crop dusters.” he told them, making Colette draw a shuddering breath.

“I am sorry, Dean.” she muttered, looking at him with genuine regret and guilt.

“Nah. Not your fault. I was the captain, I could’ve said no.” he told her, looking up when the door to the conference room opened and one of the men stuck their head out, beckoning to them. The three shared a look before standing and squaring their shoulders as they went back into the room.

“Ladies, Captain Lowrey.” Paul Gilbert greeted them as they stood in front of the desk. “One of the conditions to settle the lawsuit with Mister Belsen’s family is that both Miss Cameron and Captain Lowrey’s positions at Pan Am are terminated.” the man revealed. “Although you were acting under extreme-”

The door to the room opening made Gilbert pause and Colette could hear Dean snort when Broyles came into the room.

“Permission to speak?” the older pilot asked, having Gilbert grant it.

“On the subject of Haiti,” the man began; walking over to stand on Dean’s right side, while Colette and Kate were standing on the other pilot’s left. “Captain Lowrey left that body behind to ensure the safety of his crew and passengers.”

“That does not change that he took on a store away.” Gilbert interjected.

“Once she was on board his aircraft, she became his passenger and Captain Lowrey was responsible for her just as much as for anyone else on that plane. I also spoke to his navigator. That lift-off under such extreme circumstances was a thing of beauty. Captain Lowrey should be teaching other pilots how it’s done, and not get reprimanded for it.”

“Didn’t Captain Lowrey assault you at a party in Rome?” the man sitting next to Gilbert asked, making Broyles shrug.

“Justified. I would’ve hit myself, too. And harder at that.” the man pointed out, before pulling out an envelope from his uniform jacket. “From Juan Trippe. You should read it now.” he told Gilbert and he pushed it across the table. “Also, on the subject of Miss Cameron’s part in this. If it weren’t for her, two Pan Am stewardesses would be sitting in a KGB prison in Russia right now. She managed to get the phone number of a Kremlin official who was willing to interfere from one of the agents tasked with watching our moves. Pan Am owes her for that one, I’d assume.” he continued and Kate stared at the man in shock.

“As for Miss Valois, I have never had the pleasure of flying with a stewardess so composed and willing to help others. She works great under stress and as far as I am aware of, this is her first infraction.”

“A serious infraction.” Gilbert interjected, having finished the letter. Again Broyles shrugged.

“I flew planes in the war. I saw what happens to children who lose everything; I’ve seen what happens when people turn against their own. Miss Valois proved that she has a moral compass. She offered to leave the safety of the plane to find the doctor and get help to a Pan Am passenger, risking her own life in the process. And if you ask me, you should be damn glad you have someone like that working for you.” Broyles shrugged.

“Thank you, Captain Broyles. For your testimony.” Gilbert dismissed him, waiting until the man was out of the room.

“Well, Captain Lowrey, it seems like Mister Trippe has made an investment in your future. Taking this, and Captain Broyles’ testimony into consideration, you will not be terminated at this time. Neither one of you.” he told the three Pan Am employees. Kate felt Colette grab her hand and her breath caught in her throat.

“However, you will all be suspended for six months. There will be a plane waiting for you in June.” Gilbert finished.

“You should all consider yourselves very lucky.” the man on the right of Gilbert added as they left the room.

Outside, Colette and Kate visibly deflated and the French woman hugged her friend tightly, Dean watching on.

“Congratulations.” he told them, knowing that Colette would not hug him. But at least he got a relieved smile from her. “Wanna go out for drinks, get completely smashed?” he asked them, but the two women shook their heads.

“Omar is waiting to hear about the outcome of this.” Colette smiled.

“And I need a warm bath to relax.” Kate declined. Dean nodded at them and watched them leave together before he shook himself out of his stupor and went on his way, too.

* * *

“With the suspension, I do not need a leave of absence. I can come with you, begin the courtship.” Colette told Omar as they walked along the gallery of his family’s residence in New York. To her surprise, the man did not seem relieved. He paused in his steps and searched her face.

“Our background investigating has returned something.” her boyfriend told her and Colette frowned.

“Am I an escaped murderer after all?” she teased, her face falling when he failed to smile at the joke. “Omar?”

“Your name. It is not the same as your parents’.” he told her. Colette slowly shook her head.

“That’s not possible. Your people made a mistake.” she said, crossing her arms when he gave a slight shake of his head.

“No mistake. The nuns at the orphanage you were given to changed your name, to protect you. And themselves.”

“But why, why would they do this?” the French woman frowned, her worry growing when Omar took a slow breath.

“Because they would have been killed, for sheltering a girl with the name HaLevi.” he told her, watching her face. “It is a Jewish name.” Omar added when Colette failed to react, her mind trying to catch up with what was happening.

“My parents were Jewish?” she asked, her voice trembling. “They weren’t part of the Resistance?”

Omar shook his head. “It is possible, but that is not how they died.”

“How did they die?” Colette asked immediately, her stomach dropping when he hesitated to answer right away.

“Does it matter?” he asked instead and in that moment, she already knew.

“How?” she still insisted, her breath catching in her throat.

“Dachau.” Omar told her, keeping his distance as Colette inclined her head and drew a shuddering breath before turning over to the banister to have something to hold on to, pressing her hand over her mouth as she felt the bile rise in her throat. She could hear her blood pounding in her ears and breathing suddenly became an immense effort. Omar stepped up to her, resting his hand on her shoulder before stroking down her back gently.

“All night I lay awake, thinking about how I should tell you…” he muttered and Colette shook her head.

“My entire life, everything I have known was a lie. _Even my own name_.” she whispered, clenching her eyes shut.

“That does not change who you are, Colette.”

She turned her head to look at him and saw the sadness in his eyes.

“But it does change us, doesn’t it?” she asked, and his silence was answer enough for her. She should have known that this was way too good to be true. That it was just her kind of luck, whenever a happily ever after was within her reach, something happened that smashed it all to pieces…

“Look at this.” Omar’s voice cut through her thoughts and he produced a photograph, the contents of which would turn her life even more upside down.

* * *

Kate shook her head at Richard’s statement. Maybe he was right, and being alone really was their natural state. She had felt herself drift away from her friends in the past year. There were just too many things she couldn’t tell them, even if she wanted to, and she could not always lie to them. So she had taken a few steps back, stopped trying to catch up with them, stopped trying to make it to every debriefing…

“Yeah, well, that was a lifetime ago.” the redhead said when Richard complimented her how far she had come, reminding her how, a few months ago, she was terribly afraid of swapping a passport and now had managed to put together a successful operation to bring down a double-agent. “My biggest problem was my sister on the cover of a magazine. My parents where the enemy. And this country, was Camelot.” she breathed.

“We’d like to move you up. From courier to agent.” Richard revealed, making the breath catch in Kate’s throat and sending her mind spinning again. “New class at Langley starts in a month.”

Kate furrowed her brows, drawing a deep breath and releasing it.

“I’ll think about it.” she nodded.

“Life’s all about making choices.” Richard reminded her and Kate found herself smiling at him.

“Happy New Year, Richard.” she muttered, squeezing his hand before she stood and left the room to go home, take a quick bath and get dressed for the party at Ted’s place.

* * *

Dean grabbed a few peanuts and munched on them, figuring that he should get something into his stomach to soak up all the alcohol he had consumed with Ted on the plane.

“Hello stranger.” Colette greeted him.

“Sorry about you and the prince.” Dean told her, leaning back against the table. Colette shook her head.

“Don’t be.”

“I’m not.” he admitted, wondering briefly what made him say that. He wasn’t that much of a jerk was he? Rubbing Colette’s nose into her failed romance wasn’t his intention. To his growing surprise, she did not give him the cold shoulder again, but contemplated him briefly before showing him the picture of her family.

“Tomorrow, I start looking for him.” she told Dean, carefully touching her brother’s face in the old picture. Dean looked at her then and felt his chance close. He wanted her back, he needed to make her see that he still cared about her, that he was sorry for how he had acted, and that he wanted to see her happy.

“Let me help you.” he offered and Colette shook her head, saying his name in this way she had, the one that held a warning not to cross the line.

“What? It just so happens that we have six months off work.” he reminded her. “I’m not going to get paid for doing nothing, and I’m not particularly looking forward to spending half a year at my parents’ house either. I’ve always wanted to see France and where you grew up.”

Colette inhaled and opened her mouth to say something, but then Maggie reminded them that the countdown was about to begin and they all went out on the balcony. He was giving up hope that she’d take him up on his offer, but then the ball dropped, it was 1964 and Colette looked at him and he saw something shift in her eyes, something that made his heart leap into his throat, and before he knew it, they were kissing.

“I’ll need time.” she muttered when they parted again and he just pressed a kiss to her forehead, assuring her that he’d give her as long as she’d need and that he’d be waiting when she was ready.

_fin._


End file.
